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[Page 11]
(present) inferior position. This jewelled morning Headquarters moved to another war-worn chateau, of fine design, exquisitely placed among noble trees, close grouped and set out with a judgment well-informed by a sense of beauty. The village about it is pretty though neglected and decayed and being on high ground, from it one gets a good view of the fair, surrounding country though towards "the line" the terrain is cut up. The game is going on all the time - exactly like an incessant, intensified London air-raid; so, you need no description. To-day a hun plane tried to come over but one of our chaps got to him and he came down like a stone. We scrambled on to the lorries and soon covered the six miles between our old and new headquarters. My materials are still at the depot where I left them but I have my clothes in a kit bag with me. Arrived at the new quarters the first person I met was my brother brush attached to the --- Division. Although a painter, owing to his military rank of Captain, he has been having the time of his life and this also enabled him to join his division in 24 hours as against the week that it took Scott and me. Likewise he sleeps in a bed, has a batman to carry his tools of trade round, and eats at the officers' mess. And, nobody bosses him about, even though he is a painter. While I was talking to him my old friend B--- staff captain and aide to General M----- the divisional commander, came up and at once asked me if he could do anything for me. Streeton was also there, occupying in the --- Division a position analagous to that of Fullwood on the ------. They were moving to where we had just come from and when they had gone, a captain, whom I didn't recall, stepped up and introduced himself. He proved to be Ellis, once our champion Victorian runner, and is now our division's bombing instructor. We had met it seems at some gatherings where art and literature used to be discussed, and he had been an invitee. He was everything that was courteous and friendly, and his attitude took off a lot of the soreness I was feeling.
ST. GRATIEN, June 18, 1918.
My painting materials have not yet turned up and I am consequently more or less of a derelict. In desperation I began